Prehispanic chinampas at El Japón, Xochimilco: Structure and Chronology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

El Japón in San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco (Mexico City) was a Postclassic-Early

Colonial chinampa community, previously reported and partially surveyed by Lechuga (1977),

Parsons et al. (1982, 1985), Ávila López (1995) and González (1996). In 2013, investigators

from the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, UNAM initiated a geoarchaeological,

paleoethnobotanical and chronological study of the site which is severely threatened by

encroaching urbanization and changes in land-use. The postclassic habitational platform is

partially destroyed and a broad area of chinampas has been lost. Evidence from recent

excavations of these chinampas indicate their initial occupation towards the end of the fifteenth

century AD and abandonment after approximately two centuries. Geoarchaeological analyses

and AMS dating suggest that chinampa construction in this area was more complex than

anticipated, including the reutilization of mid-Holocene sediments from the documented

preceramic occupation of the site in addition to the use of layers of diatomaceous sediments, the

function of which is yet to be confirmed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24043